Balfron author and political activist Paul Henke has been given a 100 year suspension by the party

A Balfron author who was also the former Scottish chairman of UKIP this week vowed to fight a decision to suspend him from the party for 100 years.

Paul Henke was thrown out of UKIP in a row over a letter of complaint signed by him and nine other party members.

It was about UKIP’s Scottish European election candidate, former London party chairman David Coburn.

Submitted
to a national Sunday newspaper, the letter accused Mr Coburn of making various false statements and Mr Henke said: “I expect the complaint to be investigated properly. I believe UKIP to be an up-front party run by honourable people. We should have honourable people as candidates.”

He
was suspended after being accused of bringing the party into disrepute and of trying to sabotage UKIPS’s Scottish election campaign.

Speaking to the Observer yesterday (Thursday), however, Mr Henke said he wasn’t going to take the suspension lying down.

“We
put in this complaint against David Coburn and expected it to be investigated,” he said. “Instead of which the party hierarchy has turned
on me and given me this ridiculous suspension.

“I’ve
been in UKIP for eight years, stood in every election and spent a great
deal of time, effort and money following my own hope, and the party’s hope, for Britain to be independent of Europe again.”

Born
in Wales, Mr Henke is a qualified bomb and mine disposal expert who specialised in diving and handling explosives before becoming the Commanding Officer of various minesweeping and minehunting ships and taking part in blowing up Second World War mines found off the British coast.

His own website tells
how he survived a machine gun attack by IRA gun runners in Ireland in 1976 and he said: “You can’t do the kind of job I did there without having some backbone and I fully intend to fight this suspension.

“I’m not giving up just because somebody says ‘This is what I’m doing to you.’ They’ve picked on the wrong person.”

As
a writer Mr Henke has produced the Tears saga - five novels following the Welsh Griffiths family through various trials and tribulations over several decades - as well as a number of other crime and action thriller
titles.